EBR residents seeing more rodents around homes

BATON ROUGE – East Baton Rouge is seeing an uptick in rodents roaming around homes.

The East Baton Rouge Mosquito Abatement and Rodent Control facility said the number of calls for rodent inspection increases this time of year.

"Most of the time there's an active borough you'll see the dirt clean around the hole," an East Baton Rouge Rodent Control employee said.

Roof rats, Norway rats and house mice are the three main rodents that are seen in the parish.

"Three weeks after the flood we were doing about 80 rodent inspections a week, now we're doing well over 100 so actually we are seeing more rodent calls now in the end of October beginning of November," Randy Vaeth, executive director of the East Baton Rouge Mosquito Abatement and Rodent Control, said.

Vaeth said that the increased number of rodents being seen by residents this time of year is also due to the change in weather.

"We are experiencing cooler weather at night and the rodents can actually detect the changes in the number of hours of daylight so, I think the rodents that come up from the flood are not the issue we're seeing now, we're seeing our typical rodent problem that we see in the fall where they are coming into people's residences," Vaeth said.

Vaeth said that the Rodent Control is happy to help residents with getting rid of the rodents.

"Now we can't go in a home like a commercial pest control guy but we'll bring you out some bait or a trap that you can help solve your own rodent problems. We're happy to do that, it's a free service you would pay for it with your dedicated property tax," Vaeth said.

For more information on how to get rodent bait residents can call the East Baton Rouge Mosquito Abatement and Rodent Control at (225) 356-3297.